Division of Student Affairs
Diverse Faculty & Staff Working Group
April 3, 2019 | 3:00pm | Lighty.360D + AMS – RECAP
Attendees:
Obie Ford, Renny Christopher, Sandra Haynes, Paul Strand, Fran Hermanson, Lisa Gehring, James Dalton, Jim Peterson (proxy for Mary Rezak), Phil Weiler, Dan Records, Theresa Elliott-Cheslek, Phyllis Erdman, Jason Abrams
Group check-in to discuss how we foster equity within the overall search process; the below is a start, but what else do we need?
Current Thoughts / 5 Initiatives
Implicit Bias Awareness Training
- See memo and resources being distributed attached
- Need to build on these interim measures with H.R.S.
- Jaime Phyllis, Theresa to connect with Renny & Obie on what the Vancouver in person training workshops look like, and continue to build infrastructure (train the trainers to be effective facilitators)
- As we transition to Zoom, it may be more technically feasible to participate in trainings remotely. Connect with Dion Crommarty to solicit his expertise in this area.
- Contributions towards Equity statements from incoming candidates
- Discuss how to operationalize this going forward
System-Wide Equity 101 training (working name)
- Includes equity training + implicit bias awareness training
- Being developed out Student Affairs Equity Training Group (lead by Jaime) – in initial stages
- Tier 1 toolkit being beta tested this summer w/ stakeholder partners for system-wide rollout Fall’19. Feedback thus far: General appreciation and receptivity from attendees; attendees who are novices to the language (i.e. equality vs. equity) may need more careful definition. As facilitators, it’s important to ensure clarity on core guidelines, and foster a space be setup in a way that feels open and inviting and acknowledge that mistakes will be made and allow for vulnerability.
- Tier 2 toolkit to be developed
Resource Guide
- Need to draft and publish a guide that captures info about life/culture/resources and provides connection to affinity groups (especially for under-represented populations) and is tailored specifically to each specific WSU Campus (Pullman, Spokane, Tri-cities, Vancouver, Everett)
- Possibly model after ASWSU website currently in place? https://aswsucommunity.wixsite.com/pullmanactivities/about
Equity Advisors
- Neutral 3rd party individual (not affiliated with a search committee) to meet with incoming faculty/staff to answer questions related to “life/culture at WSU – specific to respective campus”.
- Work in progress; initial conversation stages; working to articulate the following:
- What we’re looking for in relation to Equity Fellow (and equity advisors)
- Representation across Colleges/Departments
- Selection of Equity advisors to be made as a part of a thoughtful process with Dean/Assoc. Dean and ensure we are not overworking new/under-represented faculty who may be working towards tenure; tap in to senior faculty members.
- Develop clear description on roles/responsibilities for this role
- Training (attendance at conferences i.e. NCORE)
- TBD Stipend?
- Connection to Affinity groups:
- Black Faculty/Staff Association
- Asian Pacific Islander Faculty/Staff Association
- Native Faculty/Staff Association
- Chicanx/Latinx Faculty/Staff Association
- Disabled Faculty/Staff and Allies
- LGBTQ+ Faculty/Staff Association (coming soon)
- Association of Faculty Women?
- Any others?
- Concurrent development of these resources across all campuses
- Networking with Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Centers in respective towns/cities (Pullman/Moscow, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Everett)
- How to facilitate active searches and take an active approach in ensuring diversity within applicant pools - reports of searches in process to the Dean
Retention Initiatives
- Look at current retention data
- Discuss and leverage current activities currently in place across all campuses (Obie Ford /Renny Christopher to advise)?
- 4 C’s reception
- BASE program
- Address retention beginning from the point of outreach and recruitment
- “Retaining our Faculties”: convene annual summit modeled after University of Minnesota; also look at other institutions that may be doing similar https://events.umn.edu/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=event_b&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=C7D4E41D-14A8-4D62-A09E-3F8DD600F0F1
Metric 11 data
- 2018-2019 data has been aggregated and is being submitted to the President & Provost
- In depth analysis reviewed with working group
- Chancellors, Deans, VPs, gets quarterly report for closed recruitments showing reports (self-disclosing) by race/gender.
- Dan Records to connect with Obie Ford to share this in-depth analysis
- Current reporting for current employees is based on self-identification; what can we do to get participation rates higher and can we re-survey current employees as a part of the Modernization Effort? FYI - last re-survey effort was done in 2016 but reporting rates were quite low.
- Need publicity campaign about how collecting this data ties in to our equity efforts before a re-survey effort is done.
For Follow up:
- Appoint sub-committee leaders to lead up each of the above initiatives
- Begin to meet every other week through end of semester; next meetings scheduled for 4/18 and 4/30
- All 5 Working Groups meeting on 5/1/19